Arizona Cardinals: Head coach interviews this weekend
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals are scheduled to interview several head coach candidates this weekend
In this era of the NFL, once a coach needs to be replaced, most teams do it quick. The Arizona Cardinals are no exception to that.
They have already interviewed a few guys with a few more scheduled over the weekend. They started in-house with Cardinals defensive coordinator James Bettcher.
Bettcher is a popular choice amongst some Cardinals fan, including this one. His defense, although not very good at times early on, really lead the team over the month or so of the season. Having familiarity with players should count for something.
Also interviewed on Thursday was Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. There are also a lot of Cardinals fans who would like to see him get the job.
They interviewed Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz and Eagles quarterbacks coach John Defilippo on Friday. Today they move on to New England Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and linebackers coach Brian Flores.
They don’t stop there. On Sunday they will interview Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach Mike Munchak.
The theme here is they are interviewing coaches whose current teams are on playoff byes. They are getting out of the way what they can now.
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Many fans are clamoring for Patricia and some others for Defilippo. Every fan seems to have their own idea of who would be good for the team moving forward.
Only general manager Steve Keim and team president Michael Bidwill will make the decision though. There are some quality coaches here that the Cardinals are interested in.
They are interviewing coaches from both sides of the ball which can say something about what the Cardinals are looking for. However based on who they are interviewing, it could be more about the individual.
Certainly hiring Bettcher likely helps keep some of the current assistant coaches here. Guys like Harold Goodwin. Certainly there are some assistant coaches fans would like to see go. Those who are interested in special teams know who I am talking about.
It would be difficult to believe though the Cardinals couldn’t find a decent head coach out of this group of coaches who have interviewed and who are being interviewed this weekend. We will likely find out much more in the coming days.